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This health-care crisis is growing

Hospitals — running over budget, operating beds they don’t have funding for. Emergency rooms — patients stacked up in hallways. Acute care beds — too many blocked, occupied by people waiting to leave hospital but with no place to go. Ambulances — stretched to the limit, often not available at all.

December 21, 2016

It’s an old story. One we would rather not argue about again. But here’s the problem. Things are not getting better, they’re getting worse. And so this old story appears here yet again in hopes it will take on a new sense of urgency.

Hamilton Health Sciences needs to cut $20 million from its budget, St. Joseph’s Healthcare $7 million. In both cases, staffing will be affected, stretching already thin human resources even thinner. Executive staff are being cut as well as front line. In the case of HHS, three senior executives are leaving. And that’s at a hospital system that already spends below the provincial average on administration, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. HHS spends 4.9 per cent on administration, higher than the national average of 4.3 per cent but well below the provincial average of 5.6 per cent. Keep that in mind next time someone declares hospitals would be fine if only they cut senior management costs.

May 10, 2016

Hospitals have seen provincial funding cut repeatedly. The province provided some relief this year with a two per cent increase. That doesn’t even cover inflation.

That’s why it’s so frustrating when Health Minister Eric Hoskins says he doesn’t expect funding to impact patient care. What world do Hoskins and other politicians live in? It’s already affecting patient care. In Ontario, you’re not supposed to spend 48 hours on a bed in a hallway awaiting admission. You shouldn’t expect to wait double-digit hours in the ER. You shouldn’t expect to be told there’s no acute care bed for a sick relative. You shouldn’t expect years-long waiting lists for aging relatives waiting for long-term care. All these are happening and getting more common. (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

Missed deadline on medically assisted dying leaves doctors divided

June 6 was the last day for Parliament to pass legislation governing medically assisted dying before a deadline imposed by the Supreme Court. It won’t happen.

On Friday, the Senate sent the bill to its legal affairs committee for study. The committee meets today but won’t be able to report on the bill until the full Senate resumes Tuesday. And it still could be weeks before any federal law is in place.

That means on Tuesday, the Supreme Court’s original ruling becomes the law, which means doctors can’t be prosecuted under the Criminal Code if they help a patient suffering from a “grievous and irremediable” illness to die.

So, what does that mean?

The medical community is divided.

Dr. Gus Grant, with the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada, believes doctors are better off without a new law.

“Many voices have created June 6 to be a deadline. It’s not a deadline. It’s simply the day (the Supreme Court’s Carter decision) becomes the law of the land,” Dr. Grant said on CBC News Network’s Power & Politics last week.

April 18, 2002

“And the language that said it’s a deadline creates the brinksmanship type mentality, a false sense of urgency, which is what is motivating people to pass legislation that is flawed,” he added.

Grant argued the condition in the government’s legislation that requires a patient’s death to be “reasonably foreseeable” is meaningless to physicians.

But Dr. Jeff Blackmer, Canadian Medical Association’s vice-president of medical professionalism, argues the exact opposite, saying the federal government’s language needs to be more precise than simply a “grievous and irremediable illness.”

“I have spoken to hundreds and hundreds of physicians. We have done the work on this. We have gone out to our membership and said, ‘Does this make sense to you? Can you incorporate this at the bedside?’ And they have unequivocally told us ‘No.’

“So they are looking to the federal law for guidance on this.” (CBC News)

Uncertain Senate awaits Medically assisted dying bill

When C-14, the Liberal government’s legislation to regulate medically assisted death, passed the House at second reading four weeks ago, the vote was 235 in favour, 75 against.

That vote though was likely the easiest C-14 will face. At second reading, MPs are only asked to approve a bill in principle. A member with reservations can vote in favour and hope to see the legislation amended when it goes to a House committee for further study.

On Monday night, with a slightly amended bill reported back to the House, the margin of approval was more than halved, with C-14 passing by a vote of 192 to 129. A series of amendments moved in the House were defeated immediately beforehand.

Just one Liberal and one New Democrat voted nay at second reading, but upon further review, and having seen what amendments the majority was willing to accept, four Liberal MPs voted against, as did all NDP MPs. Still, 19 Conservatives were willing to support the bill, and with those votes on side, C-14 still passed comfortably.

That result suggests the bill will pass again at third reading, a vote that is expected to occur as early as Tuesday evening.

It is at that point that the C-14’s margin for passage becomes somewhat mysterious. After passing the House of Commons, C-14 will be delivered to the Senate, an upper chamber in the midst of an experiment in legislative independence.

It is seemingly unlikely the Senate will finish with the bill by June 6, the Supreme Court’s deadline for new legislation, something Health Minister Jane Philpott seemed to concede on Monday.

“We are at risk of not meeting the June 6th deadline,” she said. “Having said that, it is my hope that we can see this piece of legislation put into effect at the very soon as possible date.”

The potential impact of any lack of legislation is a matter of some debate, but regardless of when C-14 receives royal assent, it still remains to be seen precisely how, and in what form, it will get there. (Source: CBC News)

Healthcare workers and community activists are hoping an Ontario-wide unofficial referendum will raise awareness of the concerns they have about provincial funding.

The Ontario Health Coalition, a group of activists working to improve the public healthcare system, is launching their campaign in communities such as Toronto, Ottawa, Windsor, Sudbury and Guelph on Monday.

“The cuts have been severe in Ontario… we’re doing a referendum because this has pretty much happened by stealth or by talk of not enough resources to go around,” said Albert Dupuis, co-chair of the local Ottawa coalition organizing the campaign in that city.

The group will be distributing ballot boxes to businesses, workplaces and community centres across the province.

The unofficial referendum will ask people if they’re for or against the idea “Ontario’s government must stop the cuts to our community hospitals and restore services, funding and staff to meet our communities’ needs for care.”

The group says healthcare in Ontario has been under-funded for years and is below the Canadian per capita average by about $350 per person.

The Liberals ended a four-year hospital base funding freeze in its latest budget promising to spend $60 million on hospital budgets along with $75 million for palliative care and $130 million for cancer care, but the Ontario Health Coalition has said that isn’t enough.(Source: CBC News)